“In 2014, I was involved in the development of the report for the first circular economy package. In that first package, it was strictly about waste management. The circular economy only involved waste management. Later, it was proven that waste management is not enough for the transition to a circular economy model. We made a national waste management plan, opinions were divided, but in this way we were able to attract the funds from POIM,” Mihaela Frasineanu, Deputy General Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests said during Circular Economy Conference organized by Sustainability Today.

“The second package of the circular economy came with much more ambitious targets. The European Commission has sent what each member state must do to achieve the proposed objectives.

However, Romania is on the last places regarding the degree of circularity because we have not learned to do that waste management. We had enough money and we still have money to solve these problems.

The circular economy strategy and the implementation plan are milestones in the PNRR. We are forced to take these steps if we want the 1.3 billion euros from the European Commission, but we must be careful which are the actions that we can assume to complete by 2026. The most important thing is to develop the repair area and reuse of the products that are put on the market. We must learn to collect separately and reuse the raw materials that we throw away.

60 percent of the AFM budget is intended to finance projects that have a decarbonization and energy consumption reduction component.”

Full recording of the conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz1zrmH4Sa8&t=8196